Expendable
by Lorraine Romanoff
Summary: "Choose me. I'm completely expendable" The ease with which Ezekiel has already decided and accepted his fate both shocks and terrifies her. Is that how Ezekiel really sees himself? As expendable? Ezekiel sees himself as expendable. Eve Baird disagrees wholeheartedly.


" _I'm completely expendable_ "

Eve doesn't say anything in the moment; tensions are running high and the fate of the world is on the line. There simply isn't time to correct him. The conversation moves forward and the phrase slips from her mind. When all's said and done, the conversation technically no longer happened and she forgets to bring it up. It's almost two months after the tethering ceremony when it happens again.

* * *

The door slams behind Eve as she walks into the room Ezekiel, Cassandra, and herself are investigating. Eve immediately goes for the door, reaching for the handle only to find that the door has none. She tries to force the door open with her shoulder a couple few times, but the door doesn't budge.

"Well, that's not good." Cassandra quips. Eve tries to force the door open once more before deciding that it's not going to budge anytime soon.

"We are going to need to find another way out of here. The door doesn't have a handle and it isn't budging." Eve states, already scanning the room for another way out.

"Uh, I don't think there's another way out." Ezekiel's eyes shift quickly around the room and back to Eve. Eve takes a minute to examine the room they're in. The room relatively small with concrete floors and walls. The only ventilation in the room is a single vent that's far too small to crawl through directly above the center of the room. The room has a few boxes stacked here and there with a table in the center of the room with a single box on top. Ezekiel appears to be right; if they want to leave the room, they'll have to get out the same way they came in.

"What do we do now?" Before Eve can answer Cassandra, a loud and heavily distorted voice interrupts her.

" _Eve Baird. Guardian of the Library. You must choose a Librarian to die._ "

"And if I don't?" Eve looks around the room to try to determine the source of the noise and the others follow suit. Ezekiel is the one to find the small speaker ingrained into the wall behind one of the boxes.

" _Then you will all die._ " Much to their horror, the ceiling begins to slowly descend.

" _You have ten minutes to decide before you are crushed to death. There is a gun in the box on the table. Choose wisely._ "

"Why are you doing this?!" Cassandra shouts. She recieves no reply. Apparently, whoever is responsible doesn't feel the need to explain themselves.

"Come on, there has to be something in here we can use." They split up immediately, tearing open boxes to try to find something, _anything_ , to escape. None of the boxes contain anything actually useful; just clothes, kitchenware, and other household items.

"There's nothing here!" Cassandra calls out. Ezekiel moves to the door and tries to force it open, but it doesn't budge. There's no access to the lock so he can't pick the lock either. They're trapped.

"Did anyone check the box on the table?" Eve and Cassandra shake their heads no. Ezekiel makes a move to open it, but Eve quickly grabs his wrist to stop him.

"I'm not choosing." Eve locks eyes with Ezekiel, her voice low and decisive. Ezekiel matches her steely gaze without wavering.

"There's no other way out, Baird. We've checked. You're going to have to choose." Ezekiel wrenches his wrist from her grasp and rips the box open. Just as the voice said, there is a gun inside. It's loaded with a single bullet. Ezekiel offers it to her.

"Choose me. I'm completely expendable" The ease with which Ezekiel has already decided and accepted his fate both shocks and terrifies her. Is that how Ezekiel really sees himself? As expendable?

"Ezekiel, no." Cassandra protests immediately.

"Jones, I will not choose." Eve says with finality. She takes the gun from Ezekiel and tucks it into her waistband. "I don't know how, but we will find another way out. Let's keep looking."

* * *

Just as the ceiling grazes the tops of their heads, it suddenly stops descending, much to their relief. Flynn and Jake had stumbled into the control room, apprehended the madman behind this, and stopped the ceiling from crushing Eve, Ezekiel, and Cassandra to death. After they've retrieved the artifact they were supposed to and returned to the Library, Eve can't bring herself to enjoy their latest victory. She keeps replaying what Ezekiel had said to her.

" _Choose me. I'm completely expendable._ " Does Ezekiel not know how valuable he is to the Library? Does he not know how much he means to all of them? Does he not know how absolutely devastated she would be if anything were to happen to him?

Sure, the entire team would also be devastated, but Ezekiel is like a son to her now. Eve isn't sure if she'd be able to losing him.

Once they're back in the Library, Eve places a hand on Ezekiel's shoulder to keep him from running off and sends the others to complete some other task. She'd sent Cassandra and Jake to place the artifact they had recovered in its rightful place and She'd sent Flynn to make some tea. Ezekiel moves to follow Jake and Cassandra as they head out of the room, but Eve tightens her vice-like grip on his shoulder. Ezekiel shoots her a sideways glance, but makes no move to leave again. Once the other are out of the room, she sighs and guides Ezekiel to her desk. She sits him down in the chair Flynn had added next to hers so that they could work together and spins the chairs so that they face each other. As she sits down, Ezekiel speaks up.

"Am I in some sort of trouble? Because whatever it is, it wasn't me." Eve chuckles at that.

"No, you're not in trouble. I just wanted to talk to you about something." She adopts a gentle tone as she speaks to him, trying not to unnerve him too much. Unfortunately, this has the opposite effect on Ezekiel and he shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

"I wanted to talk to you about something you said earlier. In the room where we were almost crushed to death." Eve decides to take a direct approach. "Why do you think you're expendable?"

Ezekiel blinks in surprise. Whatever he was expecting from this conversation, it certainly wasn't this. He leans back in his chair, increasing the distance between himself and Eve.

"Well, I don't really have any connections to anyone or anything in the real world."

"What about your family? Or the Library?" Eve leans forward. "What about us Ezekiel?"

"You don't need me. If I died, you'd all move on." The answer angers and hurst Eve all at once.

"Of course we need you, Ezekiel." Eve's tone is angrier than she'd meant it to be. "I need you."

"No, you don't. Maybe you'd miss me for little bit, but after a while you'd all move on." Ezekiel crosses his arms and sinks further into his chair. He meets Eve's eyes carefully. "My family can make ends meet on their own, they have been doing it for years now. Between you, what Stone knows about art and history, what Cassandra knows about math and science, and what Flynn knows about… well, everything, you all don't really need me."

"And just what makes you think we could just move on, Ezekiel? Do you have any idea what you mean to us? To me?" Ezekiel just stares at her, eyes wide with surprise. He looks so vulnerable and _young_. Eve takes a deep breath before adopting a more gentle tone. "You mean a lot to us. You mean a lot to me. Hell, you're like a son to me. Tell me what we're doing that makes you think that we don't need you."

Ezekiel opens and closes his mouth a couple of times before he speaks again.

"You think of me as a son?"

"Of course, Ezekiel." She places a hand on his knee and sends him a reassuring smile. Ezekiel slowly returns the smile.

"You aren't doing anything wrong, Baird. I just needed to get out of my own head." Ezekiel shrugs. He finds it easy to open up to Eve. It probably has to do with the fact that he thinks of her as a mother figure. "I guess it's just the way of thinking that I adopted when I went of on my own a while ago. Thanks for reminding me that I'm needed."

"Anytime. Come here." Eve pulls him in for a quick hug, and to her surprise, Ezekiel doesn't pull away. "Just don't let me catch you saying that you're expendable ever again. And if you ever feel that way, come to me, okay?"

"Okay, _mom_." Eve rolls her eyes fondly and hugs her _son_ a little tighter.


End file.
